Chinese supercomputer named as world's fastest

Credit: AFP/Getty Images

TO GO WITH AFP STORY IN FRENCH : "DE TERRA 100 A CURIE, UN SUPERCALCULATEUR FRANCAIS PEUT EN CACHER UN AUTRE" - Picture taken on February 2, 2012 in Bruyeres-Le Chatel, near Paris shows a part of the Tera 100 supercomputer developed by Bull along with the teams from CEA-DAM (the Military Applications Directorate of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission). At this time, Tera 100 is Europe's most powerful supercomputer. AFP PHOTO ERIC PIERMONT (Photo credit should read ERIC PIERMONT/AFP/Getty Images)

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BEIJING (AP) -- China has built the world's fastest computer for a second time, beating the U.S.'s Titan machine.

The semiannual TOP500 official listing of the world's fastest supercomputers says the Tianhe-2 developed by the National University of Defense Technology in Changsha city in central China is capable of sustained computing of 33.86 petaflops per second. That's the equivalent of 33,860 trillion calculations per second. The list was released Monday.

The Tianhe-2 knocks the U.S. Department of Energy's Titan machine off the no. 1 spot. It achieved 17.59 petaflops per second.

It's the second time China has been named as having built the world's fastest supercomputer. In 2010, predecessor Tianhe-1A gained that honor.

Supercomputers are used for complex work such as modeling weather systems, simulating nuclear explosions and designing jetliners.